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To follow up on Mad Max I want to emphasize again the parallel between Max's Road Warrior and Guts' Black Swordsman. Both scarred by the loss of loved ones, motivated by revenge, outwardly anti-social and opportunistic, and basically having no interest in being regarded as a "hero" by anyone, which ultimately makes their eventual, reluctant, herosim all the more true. As for Fury Road, again, too bad Gibson's baggage probably made the film impossible to complete, and enjoy such mass appeal, with him attached, because there's no reason it couldn't have been an older Max.

To follow up on Mad Max I want to emphasize again the parallel between Max's Road Warrior and Guts' Black Swordsman. Both scarred by the loss of loved ones, motivated by revenge, outwardly anti-social and opportunistic, and basically having no interest in being regarded as a "hero" by anyone, which ultimately makes their eventual, reluctant, herosim all the more true. As for Fury Road, again, too bad Gibson's baggage probably made the film impossible to complete, and enjoy such mass appeal, with him attached, because there's no reason it couldn't have been an older Max.

Yeah, even having not seen the other films, I couldn't help but think of Guts through a lot of scenes.

Enjoyed the podcast! Good conversation with Kruge. A lot of work has gone into that Void cosplay! I bet it will look amazing when you're done. Heck it already does, but once it's a costume with the stilts and all I think it'll be really sweet.

Well, I've been saying Farnese's name wrong. It was interesting to learn that it's Italian.

Great discussion about the evil spirits that haunt Guts and the appearance of the Beast of Darkness.

I was glad to hear that Azan and Mozgus' noses came up in the conversation! Just kidding. I feel pretty silly about that thread looking back on it, actually. I think it did bring up some interesting info, though, and I enjoyed thinking about the characters and learning some cool stuff about them, so guess it wasn't all for naught.

I saw Mad Max the other day. I really liked it! It felt a bit like some wild dream that doesn't make complete sense, but somehow that's fine. I was on the edge of my seat almost the whole time. For not knowing much about the characters and having such minimal dialog, I still came to care about them a surprising amount, so they definitely did something right there. The acting was great. I also like that they did so many of the stunts for real. The real action scenes just seem to pack more of a visceral punch than CGI.Apparantly they'll be coming out with comic books that tell the backstories of some of the characters from the movie. The first one will be about Nux and Immortan Joe and it's supposed to be released today. I might just check it out since the movie did leave me wanting to know more about the characters.

Anyway, thanks for another fun podcast!

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A good sword, even if it rusts and dulls, has good steel that never rusts left over in the wick. That steel's the ultimate steel. Even if it cracks, if you return it to the fire, it's sure to be reborn. - Godot

Well, I'm glad I don't have to re-post it in there now, and that I'm not alone in seeing that. BTW, if you haven't listened to the pod, you get a name drop near the beginning of Max talk starting at about 1:22:00.

Some more follow up on what I said on the pod: I've come around on Hardy/Max in the movie, mainly because going in I wasn't sure of the chronology, like was it a sequel (where he got the new Interceptor?), a reboot (No thanks), or something taking place between Mad Max 1 and 2 (sounds cool, but presents difficult expectations all around, "who are these people he failed to save?", "will Max meet Dog?", "will The Road Warrior still make sense after this?" and so on and so on...). This created an unpleasant anachronistic sense of cognitive dissonance as I was watching. But it was pretty clear to me after, and Miller agrees, that, iffy chronology and all, it makes the most sense as an experience taking place sometime after Thunderdome, new/old Interceptor or not. So, it should just be seen as what it is, the 4th Mad Max movie, and all the stuff Max has gone through before and the audience has experienced comes to bear on his character.

Knowing that makes all those expectations go away and Max's changes far more appealing to me as it's a natural consequence of his development (and doesn't flush everything before this movie down the toilet or try to recreate it from scratch). Also, it makes practical sense since, despite his boyish looks, Hardy is almost a decade older than Gibson was the last time he played Max (God, Gibson looked middle-aged when he was in his 20's). That's a long time to be alone in the wasteland getting weird with a beard, so, in a nutshell, now I like Hardy's performance as an understandably Madder Max. I also retract my statement it would be better with Gibson, because it would be nearly impossible for the movie to be as vital with him, whether due to his baggage or him being past his prime; all else being equal, it would've been hard not to shake the perception of it as some ill-advised last hurrah, ala Crystal Skull, rather than an exciting new enterprise that amounts to a rebirth of the genre). Anyway, I look forward to seeing it again without all that bullshit swimming around in my head... well, mostly, save for one thing: I guess his first V8 Interceptor wasn't literally the last one as it was dubbed (unless he spent the interim somehow restoring it =) I'm still pissed they wrecked it again immediately too, and twice! For those that don't understand my objection, following up on the Max/Guts comparison, the iconic V8 Interceptor is kind of like Max's Dragon Slayer, so giving it back to him only to take it away is a big tease.

This episode was jam-packed! An interview, Berserk re-read and Mad Max talk, damn. I'm feeling a bit spoiled right now!

I really enjoyed your discussion regarding Azan. I think that he often gets overlooked, along with some of Berserk's less glamorous but still fun and interesting supporting characters (sadly it's long list!). I seriously can't wait to see more of what he'll bring to the table once they arrive on the island.

As for Mad Max, I'm in the same boat as Walter. Mad Max had always kind of been on my radar, but I never actually went to the trouble of watching any of the movies (probably because you never see them on TV, like you guys were saying). I didn't want to buy into the buzz myself, but the sheer number of tough ladies in this movie was very refreshing for me, especially having seen the Avengers 2 recently, which failed pretty dismally in that area. Like you guys said, part of what made this movie great was how it was never addressed as being unusual. I hope the success of Fury Road sets a new precedent for women in action movies, and for, uh, sports bras.

As for Mad Max, I'm in the same boat as Walter. Mad Max had always kind of been on my radar, but I never actually went to the trouble of watching any of the movies (probably because you never see them on TV, like you guys were saying).

Yeah, and I can imagine if one didn't see them before Gibson's meltdown that would naturally knock it down the priority list. I'm glad I was exposed to them in my adolescence so the character is truly separate from the man to me. Again, probably for the best this didn't happen:

I didn't want to buy into the buzz myself, but the sheer number of tough ladies in this movie was very refreshing for me, especially having seen the Avengers 2 recently, which failed pretty dismally in that area.

"Now go be a hero!" Yeah, it wasn't good, I otherwise still enjoyed Widow, but Whedon surprisingly never really shined with her character (starting with her introduction in Avengers, it's all been surprisingly sloppy and counter-intuitive).

Like you guys said, part of what made this movie great was how it was never addressed as being unusual. I hope the success of Fury Road sets a new precedent for women in action movies

There's actually a precedent for strong women in the franchise, such as The Road Warrior's appropriately named Furiosa prototype, "Warrior Woman":

And Tina Turner's far more powerful and dangerous Aunty Entity, from Thunderdome:

Anyway, yeah, Theron is great in this and you never question the authenticity of any of it. Fury Road hasn't even had the usually inevitable, "hold it, just how feminist/progressive/TRU is it REALLY!?" backlash. I think those No Ma'am guys striking first actually helped inoculate it from that annoying liberal tic (to quote the aforementioned Mr. Whedon, "everything has to be parsed and decried"). Closest I've seen were comments that it could have featured more POC, but others pointed out a few prominet but not obvious examples because... how can you tell, really? Everyone is either covered in dirt or white powder; truly egalitarian. =)

Thanks guys! I should've taken the opportunity to shamelessly plug that I'll be selling copies of the bust once it's done along with the hyper-realistic Beherits, if anyone still wants them.

Really cool to hear about your process on the podcast and hats off to Walter for making it happen. Can't wait to see the final product. It looks AMAZING right now and it isn't even complete yet! Quick thing - the 1:1 helmets John did were made out of fiberglass and I think he also used the same material to make SK armor and the DS.

Walter - in the future, would you be open to having people who make kits on the pod (someone like berserkberserk) or other Berserk related projects like Theoden?

Logged

At the end of time, a moment will come when just one man remains. Then the moment will pass. Man will be gone. There will be nothing to show that we were ever here... but stardust.

caught up with it and it didn't disappoint, analyzing literature is not my strength so sometimes i may misinterpret things, so this really helps . I know u get it a lot but heres one more Thanks into ur collection .

Finally I found the time to listen to your two latest podcasts, I am also excited about your Mad Max discussion.

Unfortunately I am having problems connecting to the links for all of your podcasts right now, the pages just won't load for me. Am I the only one having this issue?

UPDATE: It is most likely just me, as I also have trouble with downloading (not streaming) other podcasts from other sites. Changing the browser on my desktop PC doesn't solve the problem, but trying it on my laptop does. I have no idea how I can solve this, if someone can help me out I would very much appreciate it.

Thank you for another great episode! This time I had to listen to the podcast in two sessions because I hadn't watched Mad Max, but now I finally have. Great discussion! Regarding the movie, I'm so late to the party that I feel like there's not really much I can't say, but I will say that, even with all the hype surrounding it and the high expectations, the movie didn't disappoint one bit; on the contrary, I thought it was really good. So much so that I'm seriously considering going to the theaters to see it one more time, and that's is something that I haven't done in very many years.

Regarding a certain moment of the Mad Max discussion, Griffith I have the perfect card game for you: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citadels_%28card_game%29 (I actually own a copy of the game)

Thank you for another great episode! This time I had to listen to the podcast in two sessions because I hadn't watched Mad Max, but now I finally have.

Awesome, glad you were able to catch up!

Quote

By the way, how do you spoiler tag a URL?

Hmm, you've stumbled onto a coloring issue, for sure. But it's still possible. You just have to include text along WITH the clickable part of the standard URL tagLike this, I think Of course, then the link sort of disappears...

Hmm, you've stumbled onto a coloring issue, for sure. But it's still possible. You just have to include text along WITH the clickable part of the standard URL tagLike this, I think Of course, then the link sort of disappears...